The Government has already approved support corresponding to more than one billion euros, of which more than 500 millions of lost funds for restaurants and nightlife companies, said the minister of state, of the Economy and the Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, at a press conference in which he presented specific measures for the sector.
The minister pointed out that the catering sector lost about 1.860 million in the first nine months of the year, face ao mesmo período do ano passado. Despite admitting that it is impossible to fully compensate for this loss and to resort to all situations, stresses that there should be few sectors that have received such a significant set.
Assim, the ‘Apoiar.pt’ program is aimed at micro and small companies in the sector and compensates for the accumulated revenue loss over the year: companies that have 25% billing break detected in the e-invoice system, will be entitled to non-refundable compensation for 20% this break, with limits of 7.500 euros for micro-businesses, e 40 thousand euros for small businesses. These figures are also increased for nightlife companies, according to the minister.
Pedro Siza Vieira said that the Government wants this support to be available in the last week of November for applications, for payments to start in December.
Segundo o governante, this support accumulates with all the others that are available to companies and with the special program that the Prime Minister announced that it exclusively compensates the restoration for the losses of the weekends of prohibition of circulation during the afternoon and at night, through comparison with billing on the weekends of 2020, compensation of 20%.
These statements by Pedro Siza Vieira come at a time marked by the challenge of the catering sector, facing a mandatory curfew from 1 pm on 2 weekends in the highest risk municipalities.
Pedro Siza Vieira stressed that from the first moment, the Government recognized that this would be one of the sectors most affected, as the whole tourist industry and, since the first moment, sought to have measures specifically aimed at restoring.
Since the beginning of November, the Government announced two additional measures to support companies, o Apoiar.pt (that it is estimated that the restoration will receive 200 million euros non-refundable) and Support Restauração.pt (no valor de 25 milhões).
The minister stressed that, in the set, these supports amount to 1.103 milhões de euros, to compensate for a break in 1.860 million euros of demand during the first few 9 meses, that was felt differently between restaurants focused on tourism, more affected, and neighborhood restaurants, less affected.
In the set of measures to support the maintenance of employment, as the lay-off, support for the gradual recovery or support of one or two minimum wages per worker, the catering and similar sector received 286 milhões de euros, which includes paid amounts of 240 million and TSU exemption that employers failed to pay, added Pedro Siza Vieira.
– “Entrepreneurs in this sector have expressed an understandable desperation in the face of more extreme situations, because many times such a company is the life of an entrepreneur, but there is some ignorance of the support measures ”, disse.
Pedro Siza Vieira also referred to nightlife companies, are a particularly affected sector because there are restrictions on activity that have been determined administratively and that persist, unlike the restoration whose reopening was authorized to 18 de Maio, to remember that in many countries in Europe the restoration is completely closed.
Companies whose activity is still closed due to the imposition of measures to combat the pandemic, how nightlife can change the simplified lay-off mechanism and adhere to the new regime to support progressive resumption.
The simplified lay-off regime ended in July for most companies, keeping only for those who are required to remain closed, but they are allowed, as the Minister of Economy said, transition to the regime of support for the progressive, where the financial effort to maintain employment is lower.
Support for the progressive recovery was reformulated in October, starting to predict that companies with billing losses greater than 75% can reduce up to 100% the normal working period (PNT), being the remuneration of the worker (which cannot be less than 88%) paid in full by Social Security. The employer will have, by your side, to pay only 50% of the Single Social Rate.
